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French voters head to the polls on Sunday in the first round of nationwide regional elections, with the far right aiming for a solid performance as the country’s political center of gravity undergoes a right-wing shift.
While regional elections in France rarely come with significant political risks, this year’s contest is seen as a forerunner in next year’s presidential race. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has shamelessly coined the contest as a rehearsal for the 2022 presidential election, in which she will likely be the main challenger to President Emmanuel Macron.
“The victories we will achieve will be many steps on the road to national victory,” Le Pen told reporters on Friday, as the campaign drew to a close.
The campaign reflected the changing nature of France’s political landscape, which has shifted increasingly to the right in recent months amid heated debates about security, immigration and religious extremism.
For Ms. Le Pen, the regional elections represent a new stage in her strategy for coming to power.
She has tried to smear her party in recent years to win over the new converts who have so far tried to prevent the far right from gaining power by voting for the best major party in elections – a phenomenon known as the “Republican Front”. “
That front began to collapse in municipal elections last year, when Le Pen’s party seized Perpignan, the first city of more than 120,000 to fall to the far right. Ms. Le Pen hopes that this month’s elections will further accelerate those gains and serve as a springboard for a higher office.
But her party could face an even tougher task in the second round of voting, as other rival parties are likely to scramble to drive the far right out of power.
In regional elections, all parties with more than 10 percent of the vote go to the second round, where coalitions can be formed to win the majority of votes.
In 2015, the National Rally advanced in six regions in the first round, but was ultimately defeated overall, a sharp setback that prompted Ms Le Pen to redouble efforts to normalize her party’s image, while sticking to its hardline stances on immigration. Islam and security.
Mr. Cotres said the vote could be marked by a record low voter turnout. An IFOP poll predicted that about 60 percent of voters – about 20 million in total – would stay away.
What happens to the French democratic model? asked Mr. Cotres, noting that abstentions had been increasing in every election in recent years.
In France, where most power is stationed, regional councils have little influence over long-term policies, which is why some voters consider regional elections futile. Regional councils oversee local infrastructure projects such as high schools, intercity transportation networks or regional nature parks, but hardly have a say in major issues such as security.
This year’s regional elections also signal a new stage in the restructuring of the country’s political divisions, as the traditional left-right divide has been torn apart while Mr. Macron and Ms. Le Pen dominate national politics.
In the southeastern region, called Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the candidate leading the National Rally campaign was a defector from Les Républicains, the French centre-right party.
To stave off the threat of a far-right victory, Mr Macron’s party, La République en Marche, forged an alliance in May with the Republic. But the electoral agreement only split the centre-right party, pitting the Liberals against the Conservatives who called the arrangement a betrayal.
On Friday, Ms Le Pen, who said Le Republics was now “where starvation survivors devour each other,” called on Conservative voters to support her movement in Sunday’s vote.
Macron has been hunting right-wing voters for several months, pushing forward bills on security and Islamic extremism.
Macron recently embarked on a six-week political tour of France in an effort to reconnect with the French people as they emerge from the coronavirus crisis, and in what appears to be a first step in his expected campaign for re-election in 2022.
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